In Memoriam: Adel Fares Sarofim (1934-2011)

Adel Fares Sarofim, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Presidential Professor at the University of Utah (also Department of Chemical Engineering), passed away on December 4, 2011, in Norfolk, Virginia. The grandson of Morcos Simaika Pasha, founder of the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt, he was born on October 21, 1934, in Cairo. After graduation from the English School in Heliopolis, Adel needed to wait four years to meet the minimum age requirement to enroll in Oxford University, UK. His 50 plus year academic career began at Oxford University, UK, where he received a Chemistry BA in 1955. After Oxford, he studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), receiving a SM in Chemical Engineering Practice in 1957 and a ScD in Chemical Engineering in 1962. Adel Sarofim’s research advisor at MIT was Hoyt C. Hottel, with whom Adel made important and lasting contributions to the field of radiation heat transfer, as evidenced by the over 1200 citations of their book,  Radiative Heat Transfer , published in 1967. Adel started his professional career in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT in 1958 as an instructor. He became an Assistant Professor in 1961 and attained the rank of Professor in 1972. From 1989 until 1996 he was the Lammot DuPont Professor of Chemical Engineering, and, in 1996, he was appointed Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT.